Affiliates let's make some guidelines for shop keepers to follow if they want the interest of affiliates and to leverage affiliate traffic.


1. First, have a shop that already converts well. Know the basics of ecommerce 101. Therefore you will be in a good position to maximise affiliate traffic.

2. Be the shop keeper! Don't try and mess being an affiliate too.

3. Lose the banner exchanges, top site links etc. It wastes your PR, sends your traffic away, loses the concentration of the visitor. (All covered in No.1)

4. Utilise descriptive, seo friendly, product names and descriptions. Product names should NOT be "White T-Shirt" etc. Descriptions should not include hyperlinks in them or prompts to shop on your website. Sell the product the customer is looking at.

5. Don't bother with itzy bitzy markups. At least $5 please.

6. Don't use CJ links in your custom shop which is prominently linked to from your premium shop.

7. Tag well!! Don't over tag with complete useless nonsense. Ignore the rubbish CafePress suggest and really home in on the markets your design will appeal to.

8. Use a special tag and let your affiliates know it. This makes fantastic, high quality landing pages that your affiliates can use.

9. Provide some way for your affiliates to contact you. Be there when they want something.

10. Keep making great designs! Announce them here and speak up when affiliates are looking.


Affiliates please continue. Copy and paste 1 to 10 and add 11 (as so on). Keep the thread on topic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Adam,

Can someone explain #8 to me, please.

It is a unique tag, not an ordinary word, that you add to your image tags so that it will bring up only your particular group of designs. It makes it easy to see all the designs of one particular type by one particular artist. A completely made up example would be something like 1464pol which might bring up all your politics designs in the marketplace.

Now I understand.

1. First, have a shop that already converts well. Know the basics of ecommerce 101. Therefore you will be in a good position to maximise affiliate traffic.

2. Be the shop keeper! Don't try and mess being an affiliate too.

3. Lose the banner exchanges, top site links etc. It wastes your PR, sends your traffic away, loses the concentration of the visitor. (All covered in No.1)

4. Utilise descriptive, seo friendly, product names and descriptions. Product names should NOT be "White T-Shirt" etc. Descriptions should not include hyperlinks in them or prompts to shop on your website. Sell the product the customer is looking at.

5. Don't bother with itzy bitzy markups. At least $5 please.

6. Don't use CJ links in your custom shop which is prominently linked to from your premium shop.

7. Tag well!! Don't over tag with complete useless nonsense. Ignore the rubbish CafePress suggest and really home in on the markets your design will appeal to.

8. Use a special tag and let your affiliates know it. This makes fantastic, high quality landing pages that your affiliates can use.

9. Provide some way for your affiliates to contact you. Be there when they want something.

10. Keep making great designs! Announce them here and speak up when affiliates are looking.

11. When an affiliate posts a request with specific requirements, please read the post carefully and only post your designs that meets the requirements that the affiliate is looking for. This saves the affiliate from reading through numerous posts and clicking endless links that may not be what was requested, in order to find one design that meets the requirements.

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6. Don't use CJ links in your custom shop which is prominently linked to from your premium shop.

Can someone explain CJ links, please?

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Can someone explain CJ links, please?

CJ (Commission Junction) links are links from the 3rd party that Cafepress has chosen to handle the affiliate program.

As a shopkeeper, I take exception to adam's guideline #4. Including a link in every description to your own shop is good SEO. Sorry, Adam, it's not every man for themselves here. Affiliates need to understand that they're being given a great opportunity to make a little money using other people's work. Being willing to allow that artist to make sure people know who designed the work you're using should be considered fair trade.

quote:

Sorry, Adam, it's not every man for themselves here. Affiliates need to understand that they're being given a great opportunity to make a little money using other people's work. Being willing to allow that artist to make sure people know who designed the work you're using should be considered fair trade.

Then put your name there, not a link. A link takes someone away from the affiliate unfairly. I got the traffic, don't steal it.

But I'm not going to change your mind and you're not going to change mine. We're probably going to just have to disagree on this one.

I really don't see any argument here. To recruit good affiliates don't put links in your descriptions, simple. If you do that fine, just don't expect affiliates to display them on their sites or link to your store.

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Affiliates need to understand that they're being given a great opportunity to make a little money using other people's work.

Not one professional affiliate is going to buy that statement, in fact it's quite disrespectful. Affiliates are a marketing force and won't compromise their money and seo because they are "being given a great opportunity".

On a personal note, I do not work with a merchant and think "oh what an honor it is to work with you, I'm so honored to have this opportunity". A good merchant will realise that the opportunity works both ways and that is the meaning of this thread, to get shop keepers and affiliates working well together, to make more money.

You do not have to adjust the way you run your shop based on these guideline BUT if you want to recruit affiliates it's best to follow them.

Edit: Please keep this thread on topic. No chit chat, just reply with new guidelines.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Adam,

heh i don't agree with all your "guidelines" myself.

Adding to it:

Keep your section images reasonable. Don't stray too far outside of 150x150 (standard); your 300 pixel wide images mess up my store.

Group by design please. It's easier for me to sell "Kangaroo with Pineapple" than "Assorted Animal Shirts, Assorted Animal Hoodies, Assorted Animal Ornaments, etc." I'm not going to root through your store, wasting my precious time.

Don't open a basic shop with a different design on each product. At least open a basic shop for each design, if you aren't going to go premium. I've seen so many great designs that I won't carry because it's ridiculous to offer them on one product.

There's nothing more obvious for an ignorant shopkeeper or image stealer than when a specific animal is mislabeled. I found a beautiful fischer's lovebird design labeled as a peachfaced lovebird. Two very different species. Of course, no email to correct the shopkeeper....

PLEASE spell things correctly.

The thread is now closed because people couldn't keep it on topic.